Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rotary type sheet counter disc and more particularly to a construction of a rotary type sheet counter disc for taking up the corner portions of stacked-up sheets from the top sheet to the bottom sheet for the purposes of counting a predetermined number of the sheets and separating them from the rest.
FIGS. 3 and 4 of Japanese Patent Publication No. 1661/1984 illustrate a sheet counter comprising a sucker for sucking an upper surface of a corner portion of each stacked-up sheet from the top sheet to the bottom sheet, a separate bar for taking up the sheet sucked by the sucker, and a motor for controlling them.
The sucker constituting the sheet counter repeats a vertical whirling action at a constant cycle and takes up a sheet each time the whirling action is made. On the other hand, the separator rotates around the periphery of the sucker in one direction and takes up and supports the lower surface of the sheet sucked by the sucker during the rotating process of the separator. By repeating the above motion, a required number of sheets are counted and separated from the rest.
The above conventional sheet counter has the following shortcomings. The sheet counter sucks up a comer portion of a sheet each time the sucker performs a whirling motion. Therefore, the speed for sucking up the stacked sheets is limited and difficult to be improved. This means that the ever-increasing requirement for higher speed is difficult to be fulfilled. If the whirling speed is overly increased, there is a possibility that each stacked-up sheet cannot be sucked in a reliable manner.
The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above situation.